Judges Comments

Best Leader in Marketing

Winner: Sheena Sauvaire – Top Shop (Brand side)

As head of marketing, Sheena has steered Topshop through a period of considerable change in a challenging market, resulting in some of the most exciting celebrity collaborations and considerable commercial success for the business.

Sheena is an inspiration in how to lead markets and drive change from within.

Annette King – Ogilvy & Mather (Winner Best Leader Agency Side)

Annette encompasses the essence of leadership. During her 16 years at Ogilvy & Mather, Annette has received seven promotions – two of which were awarded to her whilst on maternity leave, a reflection of her commitment to driving agency success through innovation and collaboration.

Under Annette’s leadership O&M UK was the second most awarded agency in Cannes this year. Annette has been instrumental in elevating women into Senior positions including recently Emma de la Fosse, as Group Chief Creative Officer and Jo Coombs as CEO of OgilvyOne. She leads by example – her resilience and determination are legendary – so following the loss of BA, she led the team’s steely determination to win it back, evidenced by a recent article in Campaign (regarding winning back of some of the work).

Her personal style is “pay it forward”. People are her passion. She is a passionate advocate of collaboration – firmly believing that “a good idea doesn’t mind who has it” she gets the right team in front of the client Annette King CEO Ogilvy & Mather( Winner Best Leader Agency Side)

Highly commended: Dawn Farrow – Boom

Dawn’s leadership is shown in her ability to not only establish a successful business, but her ability to create a diverse, motivated and empowered team and unite her ‘Boomers’ around a vision and a unique business purpose.

The One to Watch

Winner: Charlotte Hamill – Born Social

Charlotte’s entrepreneurial spirit shone through to the judges. Her tenacity in growing from an Account Manager in a start-up business, to ultimately become it’s Joint Managing Director was hugely impressive. She thoroughly deserves the title of ‘One to Watch’.

Commended: Sharrie Anderson – Mace

Sharrie’s ability to gain cut-through in the construction industry was one of the first things that struck the judges; we were particularly impressed by her passion for learning and ability to approach new challenges in the business to keep developing. This growth mind-set will be an asset to Sharrie in her career.

Commended: Catherine Peacock – Anomaly

Catherine has led some amazing projects, delivering high quality and high value work for her businesses. We were impressed by her creativity, drive and impact.

Independent Consultant

Winner: Denise O’Leary – Purpol Marketing

Denise is not only leading a very successful consultancy, she is also using her knowledge and passion for SMEs to work with the Cabinet Office to create a better environment for them to compete in. A great example of how to make a positive impact.

Highly commended: Nene Harrison – Eley Consulting

Nene impressed us with her ability to leverage experience, gained from a successful career in the development of Eley Consulting. This is a business that clearly answers a market need and is showing considerable commercial success. We look forward to watching the business grow as Nene takes it forward.

Special Award for Outstanding Contribution to Marketing

Winner: Nicola Mendelsohn – Facebook (Brand side)

Nicola Mendelsohn has been instrumental in implementing change within the marketing industry. An Outstanding career that spans over twenty years in creative agencies, which included roles at BBH, becoming partner and executive chairwoman of Karmarama, the first female President of the IPA.

Through her leadership as former president of the WACL, she continually led the charge for diversity and women’s issues. She continues this is in her current role as VP EMEA at Facebook sharing best practices between industries and companies on how to better achieve women’s equality.

This year Facebook launched The ‘She Means Business campaign’, a joint initiative with the Federation of Small Business and The British Chamber of Commerce.

Winner: Tracey Follows – The Future Laboratory (Agency Side)

Tracey is a thought-leader, a game changer and a pioneer. Not only does she lead industry thinking in her role at The Future Laboratory, she works with the Government and has spoken at the UN to drive forward Gender Equality. Her contribution to the Marketing industry and to women working within the business is ground-breaking and the judges were unanimous in their decision to award her for Outstanding Contribution.

Commended: Katy Howell, Immediate Future Ltd (Agency side)

Katy’s ‘pay it forward’ approach and passion for developing the next generation of social media professionals made her stand out in the category, both for ability to drive impact and make a difference to others.

Commended: Debbie Morrison, ISBA

During Debbie’s time at ISBA, she has made a significant contribution to the industry and the judges were impressed by her contribution to the gender and diversity agenda as well as her leadership skills.

The WIM Intrapraneurship

Winner: Tammy Smulders – Havas Lux Hub

Tammy’s innovation, insight and impact has enabled her to create considerable new sources of value for HAVAS. Her ability to bring her entrepreneurial skill-set to further Havas’ innovation agenda made her a clear winner for the Intraprenuership award.

Commended: Anna Semens – Havas Sport & Entertainment Cake

Anna’s ability to combine her analytical mindset, entrepreneurial spirit and leadership to create new opportunities and grow revenues for Havas Sports and Entertainment Cake, showed considerable talent. She stood out for the scientific approach, which underpinned her work and made her a unique applicant that we would like to highly commend for her skills as an Intrapreneur.

Not for Profit

Winner: Hannah Skeggs – Westminster Kingsway College

Hannah impressed us with the high quality and customer led approach she brought to her role with Westminster Kingsway College, creating considerable impact despite the challenge of a 20% cut in the annual marketing budget.

Digital Influencer

Winner: Tanja Mehler – Olympus

We were impressed by Tanja’s boldness and foresight in choosing to market a high-value product (the Olympus PEN E-PL7 camera) through the, then little known/less proven world of fashion influencers (vloggers and bloggers), via a strategic program of native content, gifting and experiential activity. In bravely dedicating the majority of marketing spend to this channel (as opposed to traditional advertising and PR), Tanja has created not just a desirable camera – but a cult, sell out, style item for fashion bloggers all over Europe, who wear it proudly on Instagram as part of their #OOTD and mention the camera on average four times a day on social media. Tanja and Olympus have trail blazed and championed influencer marketing, and where they have gone, other brands now follow. For this Tanja and Olympus should be recognized.

Equality Advocate

Winner: James Governor – Redmonk

The judges were impressed by James nomination, which he was unaware of – he is a true champion of diversity within the Tech sector he proactively pushes and works with Women who code and other networks to drive diversity in the IT sector, which is predominately male he also carries this through via his work with clients. James sets up events to promote and champion diversity through Thing Monk.

See RedMonk’s blog and video featuring James, on hitting diversity targets.

Highly Commended: Colin Byrne – Weber Shandwick

Colin Byrne is one of UK’s leading PR practitioners, with over thirty years’ experience. He is the CEO of Weber Shandwick firm’s UK & EMEA network, and a senior member of the global management team.

Colin has been a vocal champion for gender equality for more than a decade, within Weber Shandwick in the UK and across EMEA, and in the wider marketing industry. Weber Shandwick has been named this year, by The Holmes Report, as the world’s most gender-equal PR agency.

In March, Colin hosted the UK launch of Weber Shandwick’s new research: ‘Gender Equality in the Executives: A Paradox — The Journey to 2030’, at the Pledge for Parity event on International Women’s Day.

Digital Mum’s Best Social Media Campaign Award

Winner: Gretta Schifano

As this Award was a collaboration between Women in Marketing and Digital Mum’s, the final decision went to public vote, run on social media. We congratulate Gretta on her achievement in garnering the most votes and making her this year’s winner of the Digital Mum’s Best Social Media Campaign.

Pioneer

Winner: Jan Gooding – Aviva

Jan fulfills and surpasses the brief to have inspired greatness, contributed significantly to marketing and challenged its norms. After joining Aviva in 2008, as its group brand director, she has embraced diversity from the top down with inclusive workplace policies, spoken out in the media when others do not and co-founded a leadership group for LGBT people in advertising. Jan’s impact has also been deeply personal – a year after joining she came out to her colleagues. Since then, Jan’s goal has been to make being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender unremarkable – something she has acted on through bold words and tangible policies. As a result, Jan was appointed chair at Stonewall in 2014 and was ranked 16 in the Top 100 Outstanding in Business list.

Company Award

Winner: Hearst UK

It is rare to find an organization that truly lives up to its proclaimed support of equality for women. With over twenty titles and some of the UK’s biggest female magazine brands, Hearst’s values are on display in homes and on newsstands across the country every single month. Fortunately, the Hearst team more than live up to their proclamations. CEO, Anna Jones, leads by example, launching Hearst’s ‘Empowering Women’ campaign externally while building a strong roster of incredibly accomplished women in roles at all levels across the business from publishing to editorial. Individually, the titles also drive awareness with both Harper’s Bazaar and Red promoting their ‘Women of the Year’ awards. By women, for women, long may Hearst continue to empower and thrive.

Popup Image